PTR - The Last 5th Birthday (June 2022) - Updated 6/2

[cndkanga]

I'm enjoying your Pre-trip planning reports! As for the electronics, I am having the same debate. I don't want to bring them as I want the vacation to be about connecting with each other and I want a holiday from having to regulate the screen time but for the drive it might be a nice distraction at time. I think I've settled on a variety of audiobooks for the drive if we all need some quiet time, my kids love them.

I can't see anything missing. I might do both a light rain jacket type things and a sweatshirt as the evenings and mornings can be a bit nippy and having the option might be nice.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

I'm enjoying your Pre-trip planning reports! As for the electronics, I am having the same debate. I don't want to bring them as I want the vacation to be about connecting with each other and I want a holiday from having to regulate the screen time but for the drive it might be a nice distraction at time. I think I've settled on a variety of audiobooks for the drive if we all need some quiet time, my kids love them.

Thank you! It is always more fun when people are following along One thing that we do each drive is listen to a view musicals. The kids all love Hamilton, Lightning Thief (The Percy Jackson Musical), and Into the Woods. I'm trying to get them into Les Mis and Phantom, but the littler ones just tune out. An audio book is another good idea. I have done some trips where I read a book out loud to them, but often it tires my throat out too much! Don't know why I never thought of doing an actual audio book before... I am leaning towards just leaving all the devices at home, but if we let the older girls bring their phones it almost seems unfair to not let the younger ones also have some devices. I just don't want to deal with any meltdowns over the end of screen time, and those are so regular at home.

I can't see anything missing. I might do both a light rain jacket type things and a sweatshirt as the evenings and mornings can be a bit nippy and having the option might be nice.

I like that idea - we are pretty bad about remembering rain jackets, so explicitly packing some would make sense.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Edited the list to add blankets and pillows! These are great for the ride over, but the blankets are also useful for waiting for WoC (if we end up doing it twice), F!, MSEP, etc and if the kids get chilly in the park at all in the strollers. Only the 5yr old will be allowed in the stroller - the other kids are just too big now, but my BF's family has 2 that will definitely still ride, and one more that I think will also want to ride some of the time. It can get even chillier in the stroller than for the ones walking, since they aren't moving to heat up.

Also added lactaid! These pills are so handy to have available so all of my kids can enjoy ice cream and other delectables without any gastrointestinal distress!

 

[deejdigsdis]

You are so organized and seem to have thought of everything! Would you have any use for Ziploc bags in a variety of sizes? I always take a bunch of those on trips. They come in handy for lots of things.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

You are so organized and seem to have thought of everything! Would you have any use for Ziploc bags in a variety of sizes? I always take a bunch of those on trips. They come in handy for lots of things.

Thanks! Much of this is learned through trial and error from previous trips to DLR and elsewhere. I do love taking multi-size packs of Ziplocs! Good idea - last trip I had some specifically for wet clothes because we were there in March and it was supposed to rain, but ended up only using the smaller ones for cell phones on Splash Mtn and again when it drizzled for a short time.

 

[milieu_mouse]

I spent WAY too much time learning publisher and playing with the journals for that trip - probably over 100 hours . I'd be happy to share my publisher file with anyone who is interested

Hi! Oh, I love this idea. My littles will be 7 and 5 for our first family trip this August. I would absolutely LOVE your publisher file if you'd be so kind!

I'm only a few posts in, and this is such a great planning report! Thank you!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Hi! Oh, I love this idea. My littles will be 7 and 5 for our first family trip this August. I would absolutely LOVE your publisher file if you'd be so kind!

I'm only a few posts in, and this is such a great planning report! Thank you!

Welcome to the PTR! Glad you are enjoying it

I tried to DM you the link, but it isn't letting me. I'll try again later!

 

[milieu_mouse]

Welcome to the PTR! Glad you are enjoying it

I tried to DM you the link, but it isn't letting me. I'll try again later!

Thanks! I can't seem to access messaging on my account. I think I may be too new?
I appreciate the offer very much!

 

[Supermavs]

Wow I love a good planning report! Helps me as I make mine for my larger family. I’d love the file for the journals also.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Wow I love a good planning report! Helps me as I make mine for my larger family. I’d love the file for the journals also.

Welcome to the PTR! Glad it is helping . Sent a PM with the link!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Itinerary: Day 6 - DCA & World of Color

Day 6: Friday June 10
Park Hours: DL: 8am-midnight; DCA: 8am-9pm

Morning:

• Breakfast at house, and then a leisurely walk to DTD for (more) coffee. Would like to be in the DTD area before 8, but not counting on RD.
• Explore DCA and hit up all the rides we can, grabbing LL as we go.
  • If we didn’t get to do Pixar Pier before, that will be our first stop. Otherwise, we will head to Cars Land.
  • In Cars Land, we may shell out the $$ for RSR, but we’ll likely just stand in the line. BFS2 and BFD4 are too small to go on it, so we'll be doing Rider Swap.
  • ***Updated: Looks like RSR will be down during our trip, so unsure if we will go to Cars Land in the morning or just swing by after brunch.
  • Avengers Campus: Not sure how into it DD5 will be, but my older kids and BF’s fam are into Marvel stuff. DH is interested in trying the drinks at Pym’s but we will have to skip snacks there to avoid ruining our appetites.
• Brunch at LL @ noon

Afternoon:

• Animation Academy and meeting Anna & Elsa if they are doing meet & greets again
• Monsters, Inc ride might be good here.
• Disney Jr - we might skip this and go back to Avengers Campus; there isn’t as much clamor for it as from previous trips, and the wait and show itself are kind of meh for the rest of us.
• Redwood Creek Challenge Trail & Grizzly River Run - BF’s little ones are too small for Grizzly, so we’ll likely split up briefly to let the kids run around Redwood while the bigger kids and some adults go on Grizzly. Depending on how wet we get, we might want to change afterwards; not sure if I will bring clothes with us or plan on heading back to the house.

Evening:

• Dinner: WCT @ 4:30 - it was the best time I could get, as this is a Grad Nite.
• After eating dinner, we’ll need to kill a little time before lining up for World of Color! If we have time, we’ll try to get on Mermaid again or even Golden Zephyr, but I want to get there 60 minutes in advance - the other family is doing the WCT dining package, virtual queue or walk-up viewing, but I splurged and got dessert party for my fam! This will be our first time and I am surprising the kids; they won’t know until we line up. There are so many fun things to see in that general area though, that even if it is still pretty early, I’m sure we’ll find things to do.
  • Message boards gave me the idea to pickup Sourdough in Pacific Wharf to munch on during WoC, so we'll likely do that (maybe send a single 'runner' on the errand), and pick up some other tasty snacks for BF's family.
• World of Color should be at 9, based on normal timing on other Grad Nites. Once the show is over, we’ll send BF’s fam and any of my sleepy heads home for bed.
• Nightowls will hop to DL with me to close it down

Next is BF's last day at DL

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Starting to officially get real - all our dining reservations and packages are reserved, we are under 30 days to departure, and I am starting to buy things. Just hit Amazon for some fuel rods, instax film and a couple of small photo albums for the small pictures. We got the camera for the last trip and it was a big hit, but all the photos have kind of scattered and disappeared. So I grabbed two albums that we will pack and I'll stuff the pictures in as we go this time!

This next week I am going to try to do an inventory of our outfits and swimsuits to make sure everything fits, and make a list of what I need to buy. Pretty sure a couple of the kids at least will need new swimsuits, DH might need new shoes, and I need some new shorts or capris. Assuming it is still in the budget, I'll also try to pick up some Disney themed jammies for all of us!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

After thinking about it, researching, and discussing with my sister who is also doing a DLR trip (but not the same time as mine), I've decided against buying packing cubes this time. Instead I'm going low-tech and will use target bags (we have so many) for each child, with 5 days worth of outfits inside. It might take 2 bags per kid. Then when we get to the house I'll hand them their bags to unpack into the dressers.

For the drive down, I'll be packing a smaller duffel with 2 outfits for each kid (one to change into in El Paso, one to change into in the van the morning we arrive in Malibu). The kids will be wearing jammies when we leave town, and we'll plan on changing them back into the jammies after a day in El Paso.

We'll be doing laundry during the trip, and re-packing in reverse for the trip back.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Followed along wait times for Fantasyland rides this morning to get a sense for how realistic my plan of doing nearly everything there in the morning is. Looks reasonable so far. Matterhorn was closed all morning, but it is a low priority for us that first morning anyway. Looks like if we save Peter Pan for last we can hit everything minus iaws and mh by 10:15, assuming we start right at 8, and if we don't we should be able to just skip PP and still get all the other stuff done before Plaza Inn. I'm not planning on a strict touring plan though - DD5 will likely want to do repeats instead of doing everything once, so we may end up on Tea cups 5 times instead

Also looks like Splash LL return times move out to noon and later around 11, so I'll probably setup a reminder to check them while we are at Plaza Inn. Last trip I totally forgot to check MP stuff while at the character meal, so lesson learned I need reminders!

Also just discovered the Lion King show will be opening before our trip. It is likely something DD5 will want to do, so once times are established I'll fit that in somewhere.

 

[evilmommie]

Whewwwww, girl! You are OR-GAN-IZED!
Countdown is on!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Day 7: Saturday June 11
Park Hours: DL: 8am-midnight; DCA: 8am-9pm

This is the last park day for my friend’s family. We’ll try to hit up the things they are most interested in, since my family will have one more DL start day in our trip. We will make sure to hit the top priority for everyone else, since we should already have knocked out DD5's favorites.

Morning:

• Galaxy Edge/Tomorrowland/Adventure Land based on what BF wants to do. Might even just hit Fantasyland again if that seems better for the kids!

Afternoon:

• Lunch: QS in whatever land we happen to be in.
• Tom Sawyer Island if we haven’t done it yet.
• RR around park if we haven’t done it yet.
• Monorail if family is heading back to house for naps and we are near TL.
• Splash Mtn again if kids liked it.
• Any other suggestions?

Evening:

• Haunted Mansion
• Winnie the pooh again
• F! Hungry Bear Dinner package @ 6:30pm
• Normally I’d try to do Pirates, but it won’t be open yet
• Line up for F! Around 7:30pm

Night:

• F! This is a must do for us, and we really want to share the experience with my BF’s fam. We will be watching fireworks in place afterwards.
• My BF’s fam will likely head back to the house at this point, but I’m hopeful my fam can catch the second showing of MSEP or hit some rides like BTMRR, and explore GE after dark. If not, we do still have one more DL day!

Next: Day 8 DCA & Goofy's

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Whewwwww, girl! You are OR-GAN-IZED!
Countdown is on!

Thanks and welcome to the PTR!

I only look organized - my house is a mess and my plans for doing my shopping early are slipping away . I have an unexpected work trip, school to wrap up for the kids, and wrapping up Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts in the next 2 weeks, plus oldest DD's 15th birthday. At that point I'll be about 2 weeks out from the trip, and will be in near panic mode to make sure I have all the shopping lists lined out and the journals made and bound. And then I also have dance recital for 2 of the kids to finish up. In hindsight, I would have scheduled the trip a week or two later to give myself more breathing room between end of school and spring kid stuff and the vacation.

In my downtime, I'm thinking about how I didn't grab res for Oga's and kind of regretting it. Also kind of regretting my noon LL brunch res with my friend's family. I want to share the experience with them, but I think they might get more bang for their buck doing more rides and just sticking with QS that day. Wish I'd just grabbed it for the day it'll just be my family, but no availability. Also debating switching my departure day res from 10:30 for 7 at Storytellers to a brunch at 11:30 for 6. For some reason it now says you can't make reservations for more than 6 there. But that would put our arrival time to El Paso even later, so maybe I should look for earlier times instead.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Did some Disney shopping today - bought a few jammies for three of the kids (need to find something good for my 2 oldest who are into adult small/juniors sizes now), and some shirts for everyone but me. Couldn't find anything I liked. I would do the matching thing, but my two oldest kind of balk at that these days. It is getting real!

The clothes will be a surprise - so I have to sneak them through the wash this weekend and hide them in my room until time to pack up the suitcase in a couple weeks.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Itinerary: Day 8 - Last DCA start​

Day 8: Sunday June 12
Park Hours: DL: 8am-midnight; DCA: 8am-10pm

This is the day our friends will rest up before their drive home, while we start in DCA and try to capture some of the magic from our last few Disney trips.

Morning:

• Light breakfast at the house and a coffee before queueing at DCA, ideally by 7:30
• If we get there very early, we’ll want to hit RSR first; otherwise we’ll probably do Soarin’ and then Pixar Pier again since that’s DD5’s focus.
• Use G+ to grab LL for morning returns in DCA, and keeping an eye on Space Mtn. Hopefully we’ve gone on all the other ‘big’ rides at least once, and I can focus on LL for attractions we want to repeat. Either way, I’ll be using G+ to grab them!
• Get any must-have photos we don’t have yet, hopefully utilizing the photopass photographers.

Afternoon:

• Lunch: CS - maybe Pym’s if we haven’t tried it yet, or Angry Dogs if we are still hanging out in Pixar Pier. We’ll probably be ready for food by 11, but we’ll play it by ear.
• We’ll decide how much more we want to do in DCA, or if we want to hop.
  • DL: Explore Tomorrowland! The specifics will depend on when our LL for Space Mtn are, but I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun here. We will check out Autopia. If we haven’t managed to meet Tinker Bell and spend time in Pixie Hollow, that’ll be a bigger priority than the rides.
  • DCA: Hit the favorites again (GotG, possibly GFS). Also check out any Avenger shows we may have missed the first time around, and in general repeat anything DD5 really wants or things we’ve missed previously

Evening:

• Dinner: Goofy’s with BF’s fam. I usually avoid hotel restaurant reservations on park days, but this is was supposed to be [BF's Fam] their rest day before the drive home, and I thought it would be fun to finish with a group character meal so they don’t have to cook or clean up, and have one last Disney magic moment for their trip. We are keeping the reservation, and hope to get some kind of swag to send to them.
• After dinner, we might return to DCA if there is anything we really wanted to do at night, like Pal Around, Incredicoaster, RSR, etc. Otherwise, we will hop to DL.
• Explore Adventureland - an evening Jungle Cruise seems like it might be fun! Possibly IJ if that LL lined up. I’d definitely like to catch Enchanted Tiki Room if we haven’t already.
• Space Mtn again if we can - I love that ride so much, I will feel lucky to get on it once, but if I can get it twice you bet that’s what I’m going to do!
• Evening snacks - with dinner so early, I am thinking we’ll want some substantial snacks, possibly some Bengal BBQ skewers or maybe even a light 2nd dinner at Rancho del Zocalo. Either way, we’ll be staying in that general area of the park until time for fireworks so we can watch from main street. We might go with Gibson Girl and enjoy a tasty treat!

Night:

• After fireworks, we will all probably stay in park. The kids love Fantasyland in the dark, and we always try to hit the light show at Pixie Hollow at least once.
• BTMRR in the dark is fun, and some of my kids have never tried it.
• If we haven’t already, I’d also like to see GE at night.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Itinerary: Day 9: Beach Day!​

Day 9: Monday, June 13

This schedule may change dramatically - BF is flying instead of driving, so instead of leaving early from the house, they have the day available. They might get a rental car in the morning and come to the beach with us, and then drive to SNA.

Morning:​

• Early coffee & very light breakfast at the house.
• Head to the beach - Corona Del Mar Beach in Newport is our first pick Newport Main Pier or Crystal Cove are leading choices; we have done Santa Monica and the rest of the family loved it. I was a little cranky that day though (we parked a ways away and had a lot more walking on my ‘rest day’ than I had anticipated, it was super windy, and the then 2 yr old was VERY attached to me and I couldn’t really do anything).

Afternoon:​

• We’ll hit up whatever food looks good in the area!

Evening:​

• If we have run out of energy earlier, we’ll head back to the house and either hit DTD or Tangaroa Terrace for food or make something at home.
• If we are still going strong, we’ll eat somewhere in the beach area and then head back to the house.
• Watch fireworks from the house @9:30
• Do laundry & pack up what we can

Next: Our last DL Day